What Inspires A Book Location?

Whenever I read someone's book, I find myself wanting to be in the same places, experience the views, and see what the characters are seeing.  Don't you?

This weekend I took some pictures of the area that inspired my new western historical, A Tug At My Heart.  I thought I'd share some of them with you.

 Can you imagine riding in a buckboard down this dirt road where the trees are tall and the underbrush is thick?  This would be one of the roads I imagined Catherine (the heroine in A Tug At My Heart) travels taking baked goods and mending to the miners in La Plata.  It's a gorgeous area, but at night, it gets really dark unless there is a full moon.  Tree bats fly when the sun goes down. We've seen mountain lions and heard of bear sightings in the area so she definitely would have reason to be nervous of the night sounds in the dark night.




This late in the fall, most of the pretty wildflowers have dried up, but we were able to capture pictures of the Indian Paintbrush that dots the hillside. The pretty orange flowers peek through the thick foliage and add lovely color to the landscape.

 

Everywhere you can see the small purple daisy-like flowers I've been told is chamomile.  I talk about chamomile in my story. It's often used for tea.

 

 Here and there are small yellow flowers. I don't know their name, but they grow alongside the dirt trails and road.

In my story, A Tug At My Heart, Catherine and Zed share a picnic on the hillside where these flowers dot the view alongside the Indian Paintbrush. Even in the fall when most of the grasses are drying out, the flowers make it a lovely place to relax and have a picnic.


Tall sunflowers bloom at the bottom of what we call Rocky Ridge.
                    
Years ago, that ridge was called Rattlesnake Pass.  Even today, we see a lot of rattlesnakes going over that pass. The above picture is what Rocky Ridge looks like today.

 

 

I hope this gives you a bit of an insight into the location of my book, A Tug At My Heart.  It's my first western historical romance, and I really hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.

A Tug At My Heart should be available shortly.

Happy Reading!

K. R. Bailey

http://www.KRBailey.com